Electronic finding aid was encoded in EAD 2002 by Andrey Filimonov in August 2017. Description is in English.

The collection
contains personal papers of the American Soviet Jewry movement activist Robert
Mednick. Serving as a worldwide managing partner in a prominent Chicago-based
holding company Arthur Andersen LLP, Mednick used his professional connections in
big business and in the United States and European governments to obtain exit visas
for over twenty Soviet Jewish Refusenik families. The collection consists primarily
of Mednick's correspondence with the Refuseniks, other Soviet Jewry movement
activists, American and foreign government officials, and international business
leaders, including American corporate moguls and philanthropists Armand Hammer and
Guilford Glazer, and British historian Sir Martin Gilbert. Also included are reports
on Mednick's trip to the Soviet Union, presentations on Soviet Jewry and his
Congressional Testimony on Soviet interference with mail.

The Papers of Robert Mednick represent one collection housed within the Archive of
the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort,
beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all
denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination
of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered
to be the most influential Movement of the American Jewish community in the 20th
century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a
model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain,
Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first
organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and
isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.

A native of Chicago, IL, Robert Mednick became involved in the Soviet Jewry movement
in September of 1982, when he and his wife Susan, along with several friends,
visited over fifty Jewish families in the Soviet Union during a two-week trip to
Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, and Minsk. The purpose of the trip was to deliver items of
value, Judaica, messages from American friends and moral support to the Refuseniks,
and to gather information for the Third International Conference on Soviet Jewry
that was scheduled to take place in Paris later that year. Mednick established a
strong rapport with the Refuseniks he had met and made it his mission to help them
obtain permission to leave the Soviet Union.

Over the course of the next several years, Mednick spent most of his free time
working intensively and productively to obtain exit visas for twenty Refusenik
families he had met on his trip. Serving as a worldwide managing partner in
Chicago-based holding company Arthur Andersen LLP that provided auditing, tax, and
consulting services to large corporations, Mednick traveled extensively, and
frequently met business leaders and government officials to whom he would actively
and successfully appeal to take up the cause of the Refuseniks. The individuals who
helped Mednick in seeking exit visas for the Refuseniks included American corporate
moguls and philanthropists Armand Hammer and Guilford Glazer, former mayor of San
Francisco Dianne Feinstein, federal judge Abner Mikva, congressman John Porter,
former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, and former Prime Minister of Luxembourg,
President of the European Commission, Gaston Thorn, and many others. Mednick
collaborated closely with other Soviet Jewry movement activists, including the
prominent British historian and official Churchill biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert,
who had chronicled the movement in his books Jews of Hope: The
Plight of Soviet Jewry Today (1984) and Shcharansky: Hero of Our Time (1986). Mednick's efforts started paying
off in 1985 when several of the families he was helping were granted permission to
leave the USSR. By 1987 half of the families he was campaigning for were free. In
January 1989, the last and most difficult cases of the Prisoners of Conscience
Evgeny Lein and Roald (Alec) Zelichonok, treated by the Soviet authorities with
extreme prejudice, were resolved positively. With help from Robert Mednick, Lein and
Zelichonok made their way to Israel.

The collection contains materials related to Robert Mednick's work on behalf of
Soviet Jewry. It includes reports on the trip to the USSR that Robert Mednick and
his wife took in 1982, correspondence with Soviet Jewish Refuseniks, American and
foreign government officials, business leaders, and fellow Soviet Jewry movement
activists, congressional testimony on Soviet interference with international postal
service, and materials related to Mednick's work with the Committee of Concerned
Scientists. Box 4, Folder 2 contains a narrative prepared by Robert Mednick to
accompany the collection. The materials include correspondence, reports,
memorandums, and articles.

The collection consists of three manuscript boxes and one half manuscript box.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Collections and Engagement of the American Jewish Historical Society,
except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of
Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply
in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript
materials found in this collection. For more information contact:

Scope and Content:

Correspondence with Committee of Concerned Scientists and other
organizations and individuals regarding Soviet Jewish scientists

1983-1984

1

3

Correspondence with Committee of Concerned Scientists and other
organizations and individuals regarding Soviet Jewish scientists

1983-1987

1

6

Correspondence with Soviet Jewry movement organizations,
lawyers, and business executives

1980s

Includes correspondence with Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry,
Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Union of Councils for Soviet Jews,
Swedish Action Committee for Soviet Jewry and others.

1

7

Correspondence with Soviet Jewry movement organizations,
lawyers, and business executives

1980s

Includes correspondence with Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry,
Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, Union of Councils for Soviet Jews,
Swedish Action Committee for Soviet Jewry and others.

Box

Folder

Title

Date

Request

2

1

Correspondence with non-United States government officials

1983-1991

Box

Folder

Title

Date

Request

1

4

Correspondence with Sir Martin Gilbert

1985-1989

1

5

Correspondence with Sir Martin Gilbert

1990-1998

Box

Folder

Title

Date

Request

2

2

Correspondence with the United States government officials

1983-1996

2

3

Correspondence with the United States Postal Service, and
Congressional Testimony on Soviet interference with mail

1983-1984

2

4

Correspondence with the United States Postal Service, and
Congressional Testimony on Soviet interference with mail

1984-1985

2

5

Correspondence—Letters from Refuseniks

1982-1983

2

6

Correspondence—Letters from Refuseniks

1984-1985

Box

Folder

Title

Date

Request

3

1

Correspondence—Letters from Refuseniks

1986-1987

3

2

Correspondence—Letters to Refuseniks

1982-1983

3

3

Correspondence—Letters to Refuseniks

1984-1985

3

4

Correspondence—Letters to Refuseniks

1986

3

5

Correspondence—Letters to Refuseniks

1987

3

6

Correspondence—Letters to Refuseniks

1988-1990s

Box

Folder

Title

Date

Request

4

1

Correspondence—Letters to Refuseniks

1988-1990s, 2010

4

2

Introduction to Robert Mednick Papers, prepared by Robert
Mednick

circa 2017

The introduction is arranged in chapters as follows: "Background on the
1982 trip to the USSR; Educating others about the Refuseniks' plight;
Ongoing communication with Refuseniks; Soviet interference with mail;
Work with Committee of Concerned Scientists and others; Work with US
government officials and business leaders; Work with foreign government
officials; Meeting with former Refuseniks"

4

3

Mailing book and lists of addresses of Refusenik families in the
USSR

1983-1988

4

4

Trip reports and presentations based on Robert and Susan
Mednick's trip to the Soviet Union in 1982